Hello everyone! The first adventures & What’s Up of 2023 is here as I wrap up a bunch of small things. Not a whole lot going on in terms of adventures since its winter and our little baby isn’t vaccinated so yet again, mostly updates on a few things.
If you missed my Upcoming Plans for 2023, you can check that out HERE.
ADVENTURES
Baby Update
7 months old now! We had our “supposed to be 6 month but because of previous postponed” 7 months checkup. Triple V remains high on the baby curve as a bigger baby and everything is developmentally on track. He has a little bit of cradle cap or dandruff or something along those lines but not a big concern so far. Triple V is also eating an assortment of purees now which is really fun to see his reaction to the different flavors. He even had his first snow picture and since January was rather snowy, we’ve had a few uses for his snowsuit. He’s definitely getting stronger day by day and its so nice to see him grow a little more and learn more things. One of the big recent successes after the doctor’s follow-up appointment and her pointer which he took the change like a champ is that he is officially able to sleep through the nights and has a decent sleeping and wake-up schedule. He even got his first teeth. Last development goal that he reached is recently responding to his own name.
Letterboxd Year in Review
Letterboxd Year in Review always is a bit late and its pretty self-explanatory so here’s a quick look at that.
Avenue of Daydreams – 365 Challenge
I’m working on reviving the Avenue of Daydreams this year with a 365 Photo Challenge. I’ve been sharing it on a weekly basis on Instagram as well. Here are the weeks in January. I fall behind every once in a while but its been really fun to try to get a little more creative and push myself to explore the pro feature on the camera on my phone.
Hydroponic System
After a good bit of research and a final failed attempt at planting basil in our no sunlight house (or at least rarely sunlight comes in), we decided to get a hydroponic system. We got the Yoocaa 12 Pods Hydroponics Growing System and decided to give the first whirl to a herb garden. As we speak now, the mustard has germinated first and its only been about 4 days or so since we set it up. Fingers crossed it’ll work out. I’ll probably keep you all up to date with that here (and also acts as a notes for myself since I have horrible memory now).
February Romance Month
Normally, February is our Romance month. I have to admit that I’ve been pretty bad at keeping up with the marathons but I will try to get some reviews up for this one. No guarantees on how many movies but I do have a decent list compiled even if I’m pretty sure I won’t get through all of it and review them all before Valentine’s comes around. Maybe I will just do it for a month-long event and get some romance instead of the overabundance of crime, suspense and horror that I keep watching.
WHAT’S UP
Books
- Mr. Nosey
- Mr. Topsy-Turvy
- Mr. Bump
- The Queen Who Stole The Sky
- Mr. Messy
- The Berenstain Bears’ Moving Day
- Love You Forever
Another month of children’s books despite really wanting to start an actual book. Good thing is that as I’m writing up this post, my Kindle is on charge plus after watching a TV series for a book I read last year, it changed my mind and I bought the remaining two books of that trilogy which I plan to start after a book review commitment. Its actually really fun re-reading books from my childhood that I’m passing on to my little guy now. He might not understand any of it but he’s starting to look at me when I read especially when I make weird sound effects for some of the things within my limited ability.
Movies
- Roadgames (1981)
- Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical (2022 Review)
- Perfect Blue (1997 Review)
- Jimmy O. Yang: Good Deal (2020)
- Freaky (2020)
- Kairo (2001 rewatch, Review)
- To All The Boys I’ve Love Before (2018 rewatch, Review)
- Project Wolf Hunting (2022, Review)
- Fall (2022)
- A Cinderella Story (2004 rewatch)
- Russell Peters: Deported (2020)
- Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
- The Wandering Earth 2 (2023, Review)
- Ponyo (2008 rewatch)
Its been a pretty fun month in terms of movie watching with quite a bit of variety. To be fair, I didn’t watch a lot of movies since I was absolutely obsessed with Matilda the Musical so had it in the background constantly. I did catch up on a lot of films that I’ve been meaning to watch for a while like Perfect Blue and rewatched Kairo with the husband and taking advantage of the wonderful MUBI deal I got. I did get a couple of screeners, one was a lot better than the other. I did manage to catch Everything Everywhere All At Once after multiple recommendations especially co-host listing it as his top first time watch of last year, much like Roadgames which also made it on his Top 10. If you haven’t listened to that episode on Movies and Tea, you can check it out HERE.
Basically, January is always a bit like this every year where I want to sort out what to review in the backlog while working out the upcoming year so working through a lot more TV or rewatches instead of starting something new.
TV
- Pressure Cooker (Season 1, 2023)
- Wonderland Junior (Season 1, 2022)
- Line Walker 2: The Prelude (2017)
- The Circle (Season 5)
- Bake Squad ( Season 2)
- The Summer I Turned Pretty (Season 1, 2022)
- Line Walker 3: Bull Fight (2020)
Currently binging: Night on the Greater Bay S2, Physical:100, Drunken to Love You, Lockwood & Co., The Last Of Us
I’ve been catching a lot of reality shows on Netflix. The beginning of the year has been pretty packed with a lot of these shows from Pressure Cooker to Bake Squad and the latest season of The Circle. I also signed up for the Amazon Prime trial so caught up with The Summer I Turned Pretty which I had reviewed the book (Review) last year and as mentioned in the “Books” section above, I ended up buying the sequels and it kind of changed my mind a little on the story. Its rare that the adaptation is what changes my mind but somehow it did in this case especially since it was renewed for Season 2. The big triumph and focus was to finish the second and third season of Line Walker and boy, it was a crazy ride. Line Walker 2 and 3 aren’t nearly as great as the first one but it still has some great moments and such a solid central cast.
Games
- Doors: Origins
- Doors: Paradox
Currently playing: The Gunk, Alt-Frequencies
I believe I mentioned last month that I picked up the Google Play Pass for peanuts so I’ve been focusing on that mostly. I ended up finishing the Doors: Origins and Doors: Paradox which is so creative. Its a mobile game but I had a ton of fun figuring out the puzzles and such. I’ve moved on to Alt-Frequencies on my phone which is one that I’m definitely going to talk more about when I’m done as the game mechanics, premise and concept are all very creative and a very unique gaming mechanic and experience. Aside from that, I’m still waiting to get back to finish The Gunk but January has been a wild month so didn’t have time to get back to Game Pass just yet.
That’s it for this month’s adventures and What’s Up!
What have you been up to?
Tranquil Dreams 